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Mother’s Day afternoon made for a beautiful day of karting for Round Three of the GoPro Motorplex Karting Challenge. We celebrated our race moms with a special Mother’s Day breakfast and 10 brave moms even got behind the wheel of our rental karts for an eight-lap race that turned out to be a close, three-wide battle for the win.

Rotax Micro Max DivisionTyler Maxson took home the win in the Rotax Micro Max division 15-lap final, following an exciting race. Bryson Ruff was able to out-qualify Maxson, but Maxson won both the prefinal and final. However, it wasn’t without contest. Rylee Engel gave Maxson some competition, even taking the lead briefly at the halfway point. Isabella Robusto was certainly in on the mix as well, challenging for the lead and swapping positions with Maxson and Engel nearly every lap.

As the laps dwindled, these young drivers weren’t waiting for two laps to go; they were making their move each lap. Maxson and Engel battled for the lead, followed by another close battle between Robusto, Ruff and Connor Zilisch for second. Maxson was able to hold on to the top position for the win, followed by Engel and Ruff.

Rotax Senior DivisionNick Losito scored the final win in the Rotax Senior division. Losito qualified on the pole with a 49.766-second lap, followed by his win in the pre-final and 20-lap final. Even though Losito checked out, the battle between Varun Choksey and Justin Neu for second was a great race for the position. In the final, Losito won by just over nine seconds followed by Choksey and Neu in second and third.

Rotax Junior Division
Bradley Zilisch won the 20-lap Rotax Junior final. Both Blake Hunt and Neil Verhagen qualified at the top of the division, but contact between the two drivers while battling for the win in the pre-final took them both out of contention. However, in the final, there were several drivers racing hard for the top spots. Zilisch took the lead early on, but Verhagen, Joel Norman and Michael Bovim all traded spots for the second position throughout the race with exciting passes. Zilisch took the win and Verhagen and Norman rounded out the top three.

Yamaha Senior DivisionBen Curtis took the win in the Yamaha Senior final, after an end-of-race incident among the leaders terminated the race early for a red flag. Frontrunners, Dalton Pallister and Missy Tate were bumper-to-bumper the entire race, before Tate attempted a pass exiting Turn Nine. Contact between the two drivers sent the karts spinning off the racing surface, bringing out the red flag for Tate’s flip in the air. Thankfully, all drivers were checked by EMT’s and walked off track. Curtis was given the win, followed by Christopher Hamilton.

Yamaha Junior DivisionXander Clements was the driver to beat in the Yamaha Junior division, winning the 12-lap final as well as the pre-final and pole position in qualifying. In the final, Clements took the lead early, but there was a great battle for second position just behind him between Charles Krett, Slater Blickensderfer, Abby Sinon and Ashlyn Breuer. However, a red flag for an accident in the Yamaha Senior division that was grouped with their division, ended the race early at lap eleven not allowing for the great finish that the race was building up for. Clements won, followed by Krett and Breuer.

TaG Junior DivisionNeil Verhagen took the win in the TaG Senior division final, followed by Bradley Zilisch. Driver, Myles Rowe lead the majority of the race before mechanical issues ended his race early.

TaG Masters Division
Randy Sampson scored the win in the TaG Masters division final. Sampson dominated the division, winning the pole in qualifying and the pre-final as well. Justin Halliday and Kris Bowen had a close race going before Halliday suffered a mechanical issue ending his race early. Bowen finished in second.

TaG Senior DivisionGresham Wagner secured the win in the 20-lap TaG Senior final against a field of 15 competitors. Wagner was the driver to beat all afternoon, taking the pole in qualifying with a 48.610-second lap and winning the pre-final too. In the final, Wagner and Losito checked out on the field. Ricky Rudd held onto third place for the first five laps, before Dusty Davis overtook Rudd on the front stretch. Davis was never able to track down the two leaders, however, with seven laps to go, Losito started to reel in Wagner. When the checkered flag came out, Wagner and Losito were side-by-side at the line, Wagner edging out Losito for the win, followed by Davis in third.

Mini Max DivisionEnzo Fittipaldi took home the win in the Mini Max division final, with a nearly three-second lead. Fittipaldi checked out on the field in the first few laps, leaving Alex Verhagen, Pauly Massimino, Sam Louis Tisdale and Dante Tekampe to battle hard for second position. At halfway, Tisdale made a power move to take over the second position. However, coming to the white flag, Verhagen snuck by Tisdale, then Tisdale reclaimed the position, but Verhagen overtook Tisdale for the final time in the hairpin on the last lap. The exciting last-lap battle ended with Fittipaldi for the win, Verhagen in second and Tisdale in third.

Briggs DivisionThe promise of 100 dollars to the winners in the Briggs Junior, Senior Light and Senior Heavy divisions brought out several new competitors. Following a close, bumper-to-bumper race in the Briggs Senior Heavy division, J.T. Swygert took the win, Josh Wilson in second and Chris Teis in third.

Jim Strowd took the win in the Briggs Senior Light division, followed by Reinaldo Moloon and Paul Shelton.

In the Briggs Junior final, Billy Duff was able to secure the win, followed by Alison Cody and Neil Verhagen.

Will Anderson won the final in the Briggs Cadet division.

Round Three Results:
For a complete list of final results and points standings from Round Three of the GoPro Motorplex Karting Challenge, CLICK HERE.

To view the album of GoPro pictures from Round Three, CLICK HERE. (Scroll to bottom of page)

UP NEXT: GoPro Motorplex Karting Challenge Round Four, June 15
The GoPro Motorplex Karting Challenge will be back in action for Round Four on June 15. Each segment of the GoPro Motorplex Karting Challenge consists of two rounds of practice, qualifying, prefinal and final races for all classes. Round Four will celebrate all of our race dads with a special Father’s Day breakfast during registration and a Rental Kart Race just for dads during the lunch break!